International Networking Week: Follow-up tips from various international BNI leaders

In order to get most of the International Networking Week, be aware of the impact of Follow-Up in Sales. Following up is a must to be in the position to succeed. This is the case in Networking, in our personal life, with our children, in managing our health, in financial management, in Business, etc…. Follow-up is one of the most important behavior to reach a high level of efficiency.

Follow-up and Sales

Here is an interesting statistic which proves the importance of follow-up in sales from the National Sales Executive Association:

40% of Salespeople never follow up with a prospect

25% make a second contact and stop

12% male three contacts and stop

only 10% make more than three follow-ups

and now be aware that only 2% of sales are made on the first contact

3% on the second

5% on the third

10 % on the fourth

and 80% on the firth to the twelfth contact.

What salesman do you want to be? You can easily decide.

Follow-up and Networking

During this International Networking Week, you will be meeting some potential future customers. I don’t recommend that you try to hard sale to the people you are going to meet. But if you want to get most of these new contacts remember that in order to create a relationship which will ease the future sales process you need to follow-up. Here are some quick tips:

1) Take note on the business card you will receive to keep track on some specific info

2) Send a personalized thank you email immediately after the event

3) Connect with those people on LinkedIn and create files in your CRM or equivalent (write a note about how you met and about what you can do for them.

4) Ask for phone and in-person meeting appointment one week later (the persons you want to reconnect with)

5) During these phone calls and in-person meetings give, ensure you give them something they can benefit from (information, connection, advise, .. remember you took note during the event).

6) Ask for help, people like to be useful.

7) Plan to have follow-up emails every 3-6 months and a call or in-person meeting every year.

Remember that follow-up is one of the most important behavior to reach a high level of efficiency.

In this video, I talk to my friend, French networking expert Marc-William Attie, about why networking is not a short term strategy and also why the long term commitment that goes along with networking is well worth your while.

Marc demonstrates the value of putting effort into networking by telling the story of an architect who spent three years building relationships with fellow networkers without receiving any significant referrals and then received a referral worth $300,000.00 . . . a payoff that was definitely worth the wait!

Do you have any stories about how your networking efforts have paid off in big ways? Is so, please share them in the comment forum below. Thanks!

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